YMMV / Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Cooler is meant to be "Frieza but better." However, he employs a smaller and less impressive off-brand Ginyu Force, developed an extra transformation that seems to specifically avert Pintsized Powerhouse, is defeated in much less time than his brother^note Of course, this is ignoring the film's shorter runtime, and Goku explicitly being much stronger by this point., and his name is Cooler. With that in mind, it's not hard to view him as the try-hard younger (even if he is older) sibling trying too hard to be bigger and tougher than Frieza. Due to Character Exaggeration in video games, with Cooler constantly comparing himself with his brother, this has led to the popular headcanon that Cooler has an Inferiority Superiority Complex.
  • In a similar vein, it's also not hard to read Cooler as The Un-Favourite trying to outshine his brother due to Cold's Parental Favoritism. It's made clear, at least in the dub, that Cooler is rather bitter towards his brother for their father spoiling and favoring him, despite Cooler following in his footsteps and trying to project himself as a ruthless tyrant like him. Which makes Cooler's insistence that he's merciless interesting, given his treatment of his minions seems rather benevolent and respectful — in stark contrast to his brother and father. Not to mention his actions of being The Dutiful Son, trying to restore his family's honor when Cold and Frieza are shown to not give a damn about each other in different scenarios. Looking at him from this angle, it's not hard to read Cooler in an almost tragic light, as a "Well Done, Son" Guy who's trying very hard to earn his father's approval and felt cheated of it when his father died on Earth.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Poor Cooler. He was a beast throughout most of the film, and made a particularly memorable show of tearing Goku apart in his base and Kaio-Ken X20 form upon going One-Winged Angel... only for him to be a chump after Goku's transformation into Super Saiyan. Downplayed because his Supernova still nearly kills Goku, making it more of a Curb Stomp Cushion.
• Awesome Music: Funimation brought in many bands for the film, however both Disturbed and Drowning Pool pretty much blew everyone else out of the water. "The Game" and "Reminded" are so well remembered that most fans can tell you what scenes they play over. In a similar vein, look up a video of Deftones' "Change (In the House of Flies)" and look at the comments — odds are that a good number of them will be related to Goku reviving a bird.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Goku reviving the bird with his ki. It's not a major plot point or anything, but it's a power he never displays before or after. While a transfer of ki has helped fighters before, it's never been shown to straight-up heal mundane wounds.
• Complete Monster: Cooler is Frieza's older, more collected brother, and stands out even alongside his sibling as a horrible tyrant. An active part of his family's business involving wiping planets of life then selling them, Cooler had a hand in planning the Saiyan genocide, which he follows up by proclaiming his intent to wipe out seven more planets in the course of a single day. Upon learning of Frieza's death at the hands of the Saiyan Goku, Cooler—coldly noting he'd have killed Frieza with his own hands eventually—seeks out Goku on Earth, tries to kill his son Gohan and close friend Piccolo in front of him, then attempts to annihilate the entire planet while proclaiming it is his "right" to dictate lives on a whim. In the English dub, Cooler threatens to blow up the sun when he is nearing defeat, willing to let the entire solar system die to kill Goku. Surviving his apparent death and merging with the Big Gete Star, Cooler invades New Namek and plans to systematically butcher the entire populace to use as resources for the Star before moving on to do the same to Earth. When confronted by Goku once again, Cooler tries to torturously drain Goku and his ally Vegeta of their very life force with glee while planning to slaughter their friends, then march on the entire universe with a goal of bloody conquest.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Cooler is sometimes treated as being far less evil than he actually is, since he displays Benevolent Boss tendencies (more so in other works, but even here he's nowhere as bad of a boss as Frieza) and is implied to be The Unfavorite of his family.
• Even Better Sequel: The movie is considered by many to be a step up from Lord Slug due to having a more original villain, and even though Cooler is inspired by his brother, a more complex personality.
• Evil Is Cool: Cooler is one of the most popular movie villains of the Dragon Ball franchise. Between his slick design, brutal fighting style, and interesting motivation, he's probably the most requested villain (outside of Broly) to appear in Dragon Ball games. And with Broly having been eventually canonized in Super, fans are clamoring for the same to happen to Cooler.
• Growing the Beard: This movie is often considered a turning point in the movie franchise. Although the following movies weren't always great either, fan favorites such as Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, Bojack Unbound, Fusion Reborn, and Wrath of the Dragon came out afterwards, and borrowed from this movie a more cinematic, epic quality.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • As noted on the main page, Cooler was seen as the Abel to Frieza's Cain due to the fact that he worked to maintain his men's loyalty, whereas it was implied that Frieza's men served him out of fear. However, if Captain Ginyu's word in Dragon Ball Fighterz and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is to be believed, Frieza actually gave his men quite a few benefits (a good healthcare plan including Maternity Leave, good armor, and the right to rule a planet if they were eligible, among them), seemingly indicating that Frieza and Cooler are similar in this regard.
  • Salza's energy blade technique becomes this when a later, canonical villain uses a similar technique. ^note Zamasu for those not in the know.
  • This movie has Cooler, Freeza's older brother, arriving on Earth to avenge his fallen brother, reveal he has another form, beat Goku up so bad, he is out of commission for some time until he is healed with a senzu bean and attempt to blow up the Earth in the climax. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' has Freeza himself coming Back from the Dead, arriving on Earth and attack the heroes as revenge for his defeat on Namek, revealing he now has a Golden Super Mode, beat Goku up so bad, he is out of commission for some time until he is healed with a senzu bean and successfully blow up the Earth in the climax, which is undone by Whis' temporal do-over.
  • The Big Green Dub got the entire prologue of Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku completely wrong, claiming Bardock went to challenge Frieza on a one-on-one, hand-to-hand fight, and neither will leave the fight unscathed, only for Frieza kill Bardock with a Death Ball while completely fine. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, they both actually engage in a one-on-one fight, though Bardock barely did any damage to him, showing that Frieza ended up leaving the fight unhurt.
• Moment of Awesome: While Piccolo normally puts up a good showing against the main villain's henchmen, this is probably his best showing out of any of the movies. He was no match for Cooler himself, but he absolutely dominated the Armored Squadron.
• Narm:
  • The AB Group dub for the movie is infamous for this.
    • The narrator literally got the entire story of the Bardock flashback wrong, declaring "Goku's father Bardock showed up just in time to foil his [Frieza's] plan, and take him on in a hand to hand one-on-one combat. It's no-holds barred and no one will leave this fight unhurt"... except Bardock and Frieza were using energy attacks, not to mention that Frieza came out of it completely unscathed.
    • Then there's Bardock's lines "Yes, yes! Let us see who will win!" and "YOU DON'T SCARE ME!" It doesn't help that he has the exact same voice as Cooler.
    • Cooler has a completely unfitting Motor Mouth voice that makes him sound like a stuck-up dork, with lines such as "I'm afraid you're as weak as a little BAYBEE!" The icing on the cake is Cooler's bizarre groan when his Supernova gets pushed back right at him and into the sun.
    • When Cooler and his minions tell Goku that they apparently killed Picc-er, Big Green, Goku responds with "Big Green dead?" Apparently, the script wasn't checked for grammar before the recording sessions.
  • In the Speedy dub, as Goku approaches Cooler's minions, he tells them that he is "no match for [them]" with a menacing face. This is technically correct, but it makes Goku look like he has a weird case of low self-esteem.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Cooler's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Goku, brutally pummeling the Saiyan without even giving him a chance to breathe, before finishing it up by sending Goku flying into a mountain and kicking him repeatedly into it.
  • Goku's limp body embedded in the mountain. It's terrifying seeing someone as strong as Goku that badly hurt.